Breaking Bread
In 2013, Hillside LA began to serve meals to people experiencing homelessness in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles. Although we loved serving food to our unhoused neighbors, we realized this approach left little room for meaningful interaction between our volunteers and the people we were serving. The assembly line approach was efficient, however, the table of food became an unintentional physical and spiritual barrier to the people we were serving food to. Although we were fulfilling the need of providing meals and providing nutrition, there was still a deep hunger for human interaction and a soulful exchange of spirit. We realized there was a spiritual hunger for connection on both sides of the table. With a desire to engage and connect, we began a new approach serving meals at smaller homeless camps within our own neighborhood of El Sereno. We invited our church volunteers to sit down with people and share a meal and have a conversation.
Breaking Bread was born out of a desire to build relationships with our unhoused neighbors and to invite them into the safe refuge and community of Hillside LA. Our goal is to help people experiencing homlessness find housing and jobs, while providing a loving community of support and the invitation to belong to a spiritual family.
Shower of Grace
Through our outreach program Breaking Bread, we’ve learned about the daily struggles our unhoused neighbors face while living on our streets. Access to clean water, toilets, and showers are some of the basic services and needs that aren’t being met.
After a few requests for showers during our outreach, our team at Hillside LA/NOC added pop-up showers as a service through our Breaking Bread outreach. Although the showers were a big hit, the manual process and maintenance of the pop up showers wasn’t sustainable. That’s when the idea of a mobile shower was concepted and “Shower of Grace” was born. The mobile shower was a game-changer for our outreach, and many of our friends who were experiencing homelessness also began to visit our church because of our shower service and outreach. We are proud to say that through our outreach, we have been able to help people experiencing homelessness find shelter and permanent housing. However most importantly, we’ve helped those who were seeking a spiritual refuge, find a church where they are not being judged or excluded. At Hillside, people experiencing homelessness are given the opportunity to take showers every Sunday and are invited to come into the house of God with dignity and self-confidence.
The goal of Breaking Bread and Showers of Grace is to build trust and create community with our unhoused neighbors.
Join us every first Saturday of the month,
as we care for our unhoused neighbors.
Time: 9:30 AM
Location: New Life Church
740 E Lambert Rd, La Habra, CA 90631
Contact: j.shone@showerofgrace.org
Interested in volunteering? Know of a business that would like to sponsor our efforts? Looking to access services? We’d love to hear from you.